Instrument panel board



5 1932- .1. R. PADEsKY 1,371,552

INSTRUMENT PANEL BOARD Original Filed July 28, 1928 Patented Aug. 16, 1932 I UNITED STATES JPAT'E NT OFFICE JOHN It. PADESKY, 0F LA'OROSSE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TO. MOTO METER GAUGE 8|.

EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,:A CORPORATION OF DEILAfW'l-lIREv INSTRUMENT IANEL BOARD 1 Original application filed July 28, 1928, Serial No. 295,947. Divided and this applicatiori filed m nta 21,1929. Serial No. 415,682.

This invention relates to instrument panel boardsparticularly those used on motor cars and is a division of appllcation #295,947 filed July 28, 1928, which resulted in Patent No. 1,7 &9,353 issued March 4:, 1930.

For a number of years the effort has been to arrange the electric light and instruments on an instrument panel board 1n such a manner that the light will be concealed and the rays of light be diffused upon the dial of instruments with a soft and uniformly diffused effect, avoiding all the glare incident to the direct and concentrated rays of light. Various arrangements have been tried including the use of shields placed about the instrument openings, "but these arrangements were such that the direct rays of light were not properly focused and the reflected rays of light were not evenly diffused. It has been particularly desirable in some cases to divert all the direct rays and prevent them from reaching adjacent instrument dials;

, but it has been difficult in such cases to procure the desirable soft light throughout the instrument board of such character as to j' furnish the proper lighting effects.

To accomplish the foregoing results it has been found necessary to arrange a shield about the light opening which would focus the rays of light upon a limited amount of the reflecting surface of the casing and covering and it has been found advantageous to direct these focused rays of light upwardly and away from the instrument opening by the addition of other shields of similar conformation with the shield placed about the light opening while other shields are placed about some of the instrument openings.

In the illustrations of this invention there is properly arranged a shield of concavo con vex form surrounding the major part of the light opening and forming a continuation" sirable soft and even glow. It will be point-.x

ed out that the direct rays of light are diverted from the instrument opening'by the shield about the light opening while the more direot reflected rays of light are diverted from the instrument opening by the shield posi, tioned around said instrument opening;

In a general way'these objects are-accomplished by first forming the'panel plate with irregular openings and thereafter bending the off-set portion to form theshield, there.

by at-the sametime producing asubstantially circular opening with a shield or wall'projecting at right angles tothe face of the panel and extending partially around said opening.

"Other objects and'advantageswi'll be in. part indicated in the following description and in part rendered apparent therefrom in connection with the-annexed drawing.

'lo enableothers skilled in theart so fully'to apprehendthe underlying features here-..;

of that they may embody the same in the various ways contemplated by this invention,

"drawings depicting preferred typical constructions have been annexed as a part'ofthis disclosure and, in such drawing, like charace.

ters-ofreference denote corresponding parts throughout all the v'iews,of which:-'

- Figure 1 is afront view of the'panel showing'the partly formed light openings on the left side and the completely formed light -l openings on the right side thereof; therebeing shown only one instrument opening with a shield partly inclosinglsaid opening, (but obviously shields maybe applied in thissame tinuous shields about the "light opening.

manner to other instrument openings." Figs:

2 is aperspectiveviewpparts of'thepanel -Fig. l is ,afront view or modification and.

Fig. 5 is a leftendviewof Fig. 4 whileFi'g,

6 is a diagrammatic view disclosing the di- 'rection of some of the rays of light emitted by the electric light;

Referring to Fig. 1 the panel is marked 1, the instrument openings are marked 2 and the light opening is marked 3. The off-set portion 4 extending about the light opening 3 extends preferably around substantially /3 :of that circularopening. and when the'offset portion isturned uplatright angles to the panel as indicated on the right hand side of Fig. 1, this up-turned portion which has beentermed a shield hasa dual function. It

both prevents the 'direct'rays' of lightfromv falling upon the instrument dial and also focusses the direct rays upon a limited surface of thecasing and covering. In this manner the direct rays of light are prevented frombeing scattered over the reflecting surfaces, thereby localizing the point where the rays of light are reflected downward. The shield 4 which is positioned about a small ,partof the opening for the instrument is light from being thrown upon the dial of the so positioned in its relation .to the shield about the electric light opening that it will prevent the concentrated reflected rays of instrument within the opening 2. Consequently, the only light which can be thrown upon the dial of the instrument placed within. the opening 2 are the reflected rays that have become difiused and this brings about. a more soft and uniform glow than wouldotherwise occur if the direct rays of light -were not. first .focussed upon a limited amount of the reflecting surface and then the instrument openings protected from those concentrated indirect rays of light. In the modificationof Fig. '3' the 'shield surrounding the light opening 3 is shown-di knowledge, readily adapt it for various utilizations by retaining one or more of the features that, from the standpoint of the prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of either the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should be, and are intended to be, comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalency of thelfollowing claim. i

.Having thus revealed this invention, I claim as new and desire to secure the following combinations and elements, or equivalents thereof, by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates:-

In a panel board for instruments the combinationof a light member with a plurality of instruments, a cover plate forming an enclosure with said'pa'nel. board, the "light being projected to the inside of said enclosure thereby concealingthe light from' the front of said panel, a plurality of openings in said panel board, the light'member and instruments being insertable within said openings, shields of a'rconcavo-convex character secured around some of said openings,

vided into two parts 4. which extend along the perimeter of thelight opening 3 between that opening and adjacent instrument openi jings. In the modification shown in Fig. 4

the light opening 3&5 rectangular and the g shield 4 extends for a portion of the peri-f meter of the light opening between that 2 opening and adjacent instrument openings.

It will now be apparent that the set of shields placed about the light opening and the instrument opening are so positioned that the convex surfaces of the respective shields face oneanother. and the concave surfaces surround the Walls of the respective openings, and it is also apparent that in this man- 'ner the direct rays of light are not permitted to be scattered over any extended amount of the reflecting surfaceand that the reflected rays of light are in large part diverted from the adjacent instrument opening until they have been re-reflected, there- .bybringing about the desired result.

Without further analysis the foregoing will'so fully reveal .the gist of this invention that others can, .by applying currentj i 

